CHAPTER VI 



THE STORY OF THE CEDAR OF 

 LEBANON 



"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow 

 like a cedar in Lebanon." — Psalm XCll :i2. 



THE Holy Land has undergone many changes 

 and vicissitudes from early biblical times 

 down to its deliverance from the Turks by 

 General Allenby in October, 191 8. The very aspect 

 of the country has changed enormously in the few 

 thousand years of its record as set forth in Holy 

 Scripture. It is true that the "physiognomy" of 

 every country is based primarily on its geological 

 structure, that is on the character and arrangement 

 of its rock masses, but the clothing of its stony skele- 

 ton and its numberless modifications of external form 

 and colour are due to its vegetable life. 



More than skies and clouds, more than villages or 

 hills, more than sentient creatures of high or low 

 degree, the trees, shrubs, and herbs of a land give char- 

 acter to its scenery; impressing the mind by their 

 grandeur, or charming it by their beauty. De- 



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